Friday, September 15, 2006
8 September, 2006
We woke up late and went for a coffee and patisserie. The pastries are so fresh and the coffee here is really good. Our hiking was finally beginning. We left for the first village from here which is Vernazza. It was quite a challenging hike, very steep to start and very pretty. It is the longest one of them all and meanders round the curves of the mountain with the sea all along. There was a free unexpected beach when we arrived and we could not wait to strip down and dive into the ocean. It was such a wonderful experience swimming with the most beautiful surroundings(terraced, rugged landscape with dry stone walls holding up vineyards special to the Cinque Terre) and Italian music playing in the background. I was definitely in heaven. The Cinque Terre have been built by human hands with stone laid down one by one. The people of the villages worked very hard in the old days to construct such a landscape for survival for themselves and their descendants. This has spanned over a thousand years. We sat and admired the scenery for a while and then we walked through the village. All the multi-coloured houses are quite infamous for these villages. We walked on to Corneglia, Manarola and Rammagiore which is the last village. Each walk was pretty and very picturesque and it is not difficult to do all the walks if you don’t have much time in this area. However, it is lovely to stop in each town and feel its own uniqueness. From Rammagiore, we caught the train back to Monterosso, our village, and had an overpriced meal. As Rich says “I managed to sniff it out”. But the wine was very good! The Vermentino in this region is really excellent for those who enjoy white wine.
We woke up late and went for a coffee and patisserie. The pastries are so fresh and the coffee here is really good. Our hiking was finally beginning. We left for the first village from here which is Vernazza. It was quite a challenging hike, very steep to start and very pretty. It is the longest one of them all and meanders round the curves of the mountain with the sea all along. There was a free unexpected beach when we arrived and we could not wait to strip down and dive into the ocean. It was such a wonderful experience swimming with the most beautiful surroundings(terraced, rugged landscape with dry stone walls holding up vineyards special to the Cinque Terre) and Italian music playing in the background. I was definitely in heaven. The Cinque Terre have been built by human hands with stone laid down one by one. The people of the villages worked very hard in the old days to construct such a landscape for survival for themselves and their descendants. This has spanned over a thousand years. We sat and admired the scenery for a while and then we walked through the village. All the multi-coloured houses are quite infamous for these villages. We walked on to Corneglia, Manarola and Rammagiore which is the last village. Each walk was pretty and very picturesque and it is not difficult to do all the walks if you don’t have much time in this area. However, it is lovely to stop in each town and feel its own uniqueness. From Rammagiore, we caught the train back to Monterosso, our village, and had an overpriced meal. As Rich says “I managed to sniff it out”. But the wine was very good! The Vermentino in this region is really excellent for those who enjoy white wine.
# posted by Heidi & Richard's travels @ 9:41 AM 
